Sue Wagner

Sue Ellen Wagner (née Pooler; January 6, 1940 – March 17, 2026) was an American politician. She was the 30th lieutenant governor of Nevada, serving from 1991 to 1995, the first woman to be elected to the position. A moderate who was liberal on social issues, she was a member of the Republican Party until her exit in January 2014 due to the party's shift towards the Tea Party movement.

Early life Wagner was born Sue Ellen Pooler in Portland, Maine, on January 6, 1940. Her father was active in the Maine Republican Party She graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Arizona in 1962 and with a master's degree in history from Northwestern University in 1963. where she worked as a reporter for the Tucson Daily Citizen from 1964 to 1965. She then worked at Catalina High School, teaching government and history from 1965 to 1969 when she, her husband and their two children, Kirk and Kristina, moved to Reno, Nevada.

Political career

Early political career Her husband, an atmospheric physicist, In the general election, Wagner faced Democrat Jeanne Ireland, the wife of University of Nevada, Las Vegas Athletic director Bill Ireland, and won with 173,262 votes (54.57%) to Ireland's 123,889 votes (39.02%). "None of These Candidates" received 20,343 votes (6.41%). She thus became the first woman to be elected to the position, though not the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor. Maude Frazier, who had been appointed lieutenant governor in 1962 to fill the remaining 6 months of the late Rex Bell's term, was the first woman to hold that distinction. and Seale's campaign manager Brian Krolicki (a future lieutenant governor of Nevada), who were also in the plane, were not seriously injured.

The crash essentially ended Wagner's elective political career. She then lived in south-west Reno, supported financially by a settlement from the plane crash.